I've got a lot of brains but no polish.

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It’s been more than a couple of weeks since I last posted. I’ve been in a non-litty headspace. But after a conversation with the boyf today about what I do and don’t like, and what is and is not important to me, I may be ready to come back.

Today I was discussing with my students what things were “Roman” pursuits and what things were “Greek” pursuits. We’ve been reading about this in their text. We reviewed the “Roman” activities: building roads and bridges; farming; fighting wars. The students agreed that these were “physical” pursuits, “work.” We then reviewed the “Greek” activities: sculpting, painting, reading. I said, “And what kind of activities are these?” I was thinking “intellectual” here, as that’s what folks generally oppose to the physical.

Their response? “Boring.” That just made me sad. After further discussion, I realized that the students know being able to read is important; they simply didn’t value it as a leisure pursuit.

Of course, that’s just one class. In a different class, we could have booktalks just about every day. They’re almost all heavy readers in that class. At any given time, at least a third of the class has a novel to pull out in case of free time. So that was reassuring.

So, yeah. Reading is important. I get it, universe. I’m with you.

I just finished reading The Golden Compass. What have you been reading?

…

The other pursuit that takes up my time and often keeps me away from the kidlitosphere is craft. My preferred craft is crochet, though I love to read about others. Fortunately, a relatively new blog has united these two realms. Children’s Lit ‘n Knit is written by Shelly Hattan, an engineer, knitter, and reader. Shelly’s lit-knit began with a Captain Underpants she made for her nephew, and has continued with various other suggestions. She’s soliciting ideas for the blog, so if you’ve got a brilliant idea for a toy/book pairing, drop her a line! My favorite entry is Where the Wild Things Are. I am all about crowns and cat hats.

I liked it very well and recommended it to two students: one of whom enjoys any fantasy that involves animals (I thought the “armored bear for a friend” aspect, as well as the daemons obviously, would appeal to her) and the other who just reads all the time.

Fortunately my other class is so full of readers that after all their work was done and we had reviewed it, we spent the last five minutes of class talking about books and recommending different books to one another.